An increasing number of sesquiterpene lactones are found to have cytotoxic and antitumor properties. Because of the scarcity of these complex natural products, we intend to explore methods for their total synthesis. The synthetic routes we propose to study are designed to be adaptable to the synthesis of structural analogs as well as the natural products themselves. Specific compounds of interest are eriolangin, pentalenolactone, damsin, coronopilin, ambrosin, parthenin, confertiflorin, confertin, peruvin, aromatin, aromaticin, brevilin A, mexicanin-I, helenalin, and psilotropin.